Sunday, 7 October 2012

Big opportunity - improve your teacher income - sell your teaching resources

I have recently found out that my website has the potential to make quite a bit of money. As the websites success requires a strong community of teachers to use it on a regular basis I have decided that it would only be fair to share any money I make with its most committed users. Please read below for more details.


 
--> My name is Dan and I am a secondary school teacher and the founder of Planning Heaven. I am writing this to inform you of a potential way to very easily make some extra money. Planning Heaven allows you to freely list and sell your original teaching resources to other teachers. To help with the low running costs of planning heaven we take a small percentage of any sales but the majority of the money will go straight back to the teachers who listed the resources. However I have recently found out about another similar website that has a turnover of over 3 MILLION POUNDS a year. This website asks for membership fees and also takes a larger percentage of sales so I think with time and collaboration planning heaven has the potential to do this too. 

With this in mind I feel planning heaven has the ability to make quite a bit of money. I have decided to share a percentage of any profits that the website makes with its main users (you). I am going to set up a system that calculates how many resources each member has uploaded, comments they have made, star ratings they have given etc. Then for the next few years I am going to split 10% of any profits that the website makes with the top three users. If this system works I will consider increasing the percentage and the amount of users that get rewarded. 

You have nothing to lose as it is free to list your resources and you will always receive a very large percentage of any sales that they make (even if you don't make the top three users for the larger payout). I am also not going to be taking resources down so once they are listed there is nothing else for you to do other than check your paypal account every now and again. 

This website will only be a success with a strong community of users. The web traffic is increasing every day and I am soon going to be spending some money on advertising. Please tell your friends and colleagues about the site and spread the word. I am very interested in sharing any profits the website makes with the users that helped it become a success early on.


Please email me with any questions at info@planningheaven.com
 
Thanks  

Dan

Monday, 1 October 2012

Top 15 Teacher Apps For The Classroom


This is the top 15 most interesting apps that I have found. If it has made it onto this list I think it could be useful for the classroom. Since making Planning Heaven I am constantly finding new exciting and innovative apps but these are my main 15 at the moment.

1)     Dictionary
This is a lot more than you would expect from the title. It is a dictionary and thesaurus with over 2 million definitions, synonyms and antonyms. The bit I liked the best was the voice search and the audio word pronunciation.


2)     Free Graphic Calculator
This is essentially a scientific calculator on your phone which could obviously be useful for students in school. It is completely free and it even has some more advanced features like graph representation too.


3)     Star Walk
This is a great app that allows you to point your device at the sky and it will identify what constellations you are looking at in real time.


4)     Bamboo Paper
This is a simple and visually appealing note-taking program. This is ideal for students and is especially good on the ipad.


5)     ScreenChomp
A simple and free doodling tool that allows you to easily share your thoughts and ideas with others.


6)     Pinnacle Studio
"Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Pinnacle® Studio for iPad. Our leading film-editing technology brings you an easy-to-use app that enables you to quickly edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity. " - from the website


7)     History: Maps of the World
This is exactly as it sounds and the app is a large collection of maps from across the world and across time.


8)     Paper
This is a creative app that allows you to express yourself. It is visually stunning and also could be used for presentation or brain storming purposes.


9)     Frog Dissection
The name of this app tells you everything. This is a fantastic app, especially for use on the larger ipad screen. This is also a much nicer and less cruel way for students to gain valuable knowledge.


10)   The Elements
A very popular periodic table app. Lots of extra information can be accessed about the elements and it has many other features. Very easy to use and visually appealing but it does cost money.


11)   Virtual History: Roma
This app allows you to navigate and explore around a virtual ancient Rome. This could be very useful for History students.


12)   Science 360
Made by the National Science Foundation this app gives you access to science images from all around the world and is constantly updated to keep in line with the latest science news.


13)   Timeline Eons
A scrollable timeline that is longer than the circumference of the planet. It covers the entirety of natural and human history.


14)   3D Brain
You can zoom and navigate around 29 3D structures with this app but the most interesting one is the model of the brain. This could be very useful for Science lessons.


15)   Google Earth
The Google Earth app allows you to fly around the planet at the swipe of your finger. This could be very useful in Geography (I imagine) and having used this myself I can say it works flawlessly.


Friday, 28 September 2012

Top 10 Teacher Websites For The Classroom


This is the top 10 most used websites that are often found in my classroom. A web2.0 teachers toolkit if you will. Since making Planning Heaven I am constantly finding new exciting and innovative sites but these are my main 10 at the moment. I am going to start blogging and tweeting more top 10 lists of various web technologies and apps.

1)   Google Drive
This is a fantastic website that allows you to store your files online. It is very cheap and free if you only have the basic 5GB plan (more than enough for most). You can easily download files from anywhere to any device and you cans send links of your files to other people. It links very well with google docs so you can collaborate on documents with others. All in all it is a fantastic free service that I have got all my a-level students to sign up to and no-one has yet missed a deadline (fingers crossed!)


2)   Academic Earth
Academic Earth aims to provide everyone with the opportunity to earn a world-class education by offering free online classes and online learning tools. It is essentially a little like youtube only offering free videos of some of the worlds best lectures form some of the best universities. Essentially offering a free quality education to anyone that seeks it.


3)   Poll Everywhere
This website allows you to do class polls with your students using their mobiles phones and texting answers in. The results appear on screen and with most networks have free or unlimited text messages on even their pay as you go plans this could be a valuable classroom tool.


4)   Prezi
Prezi is an online application that allows you to create innovative, interactive multimedia presentations. You can easily create a fantastic, professional looking presentation. I have found that students love to use it and also seem more focused on my presentations if they are in prezi form.


5)   Code Academy
I love this site. It is a great way to introduce programming languages such as JAVA, Python and HTML. No software is needed and there are easy to follow tutorials. I have never come across software like it and its completely free. From an ICT teachers perspective its great! It would also be great for anyone that wants to learn in their own time.


6)   Class Dojo
"ClassDojo improves behavior in class with just one click of a smartphone, laptop, or tablet. It also automatically logs data and creates student behavior reports so you never have to do any data entry." One of my teacher friends is a big advocate of Class Dojo and I must admit, he doesn't really have any behavior issues so the students must respond to it.


7)   Wallwisher
Wallwisher allows you to use your computer like a notice board. You can create multiple 'boards' and anybody you give the URL to can add to the board. As an ICT teacher I use this for plenaries in my lessons and get students to log onto my board and post comments on the lesson. My screen at the front then displays all of the comments that the students have made. I can even save a picture of the finished article and email it to my students for reference. Create notes in your own workspace wall. You can save your workspace at any time and return to them from the same computer or any other computer. You can also share your notes with others by providing the workspace name (or url) to a friend. Great for collaborative ideas and brainstorming as many people can work on the same page at the same time.


8)   Screencast-o-matic
Screencast-o-matic is a website that allows you to create videos by recording whatever is on your screen. You don’t need to download any software and it is a great way for teachers and students to create tutorial videos, research projects or to complete homework.


9)   Kahn Academy
Kahn Academy is one of the most highly rated web technologies that I know of. It is used by a lot of teachers I know and they all can't speak highly enough of it. A great collection of math, science, and finance lectures and quizzes to supplement their classroom materials. Even though I am an ICT teacher I still use the site to introduce some mathematical concepts to my A-level students.


10) Voki
This is a great website where you can have an avatar (computer generated character) speak any text that you input. This is a creative way present information and could be useful to both teachers and students. I use it to create quizzes for my students. So instead of me reading the questions they can have a computer animated Mr T!

Monday, 24 September 2012

Top Screen Capture Software - Daily Classroom Technology (Tool)

Screen-capture software makes common appearances throughout my lessons on both the teacher and student computers. I often use them to record my demonstrations at the front of the class so they can be accessed by the students if they forget anything. With this in mind I thought I would list my current top three:

1) Screencast-o-matic
This has been my most used for the last couple of years. Mainly due to its simplicity and the fact that it is completely web based so I can ask students to use it from home. You don't even need to log in and within seconds of launching the website you can be making your own recording.

2) ScreenCastle

Very similar to Scrrencast-o-matic, Screencastle is a completely free web based screen recording program. You do not need to sign in and you can easily pause your recording and add an optional audio input.

3) Snaggy

Snaggy allows you to edit and annotate a screen capture. It is completely web based and very easy to use. You can add text and drawings to your picture and you can even crop the image. As soon as you are finished your annotated screenshot is ready.

Sunday, 23 September 2012

Google Drive - Daily Classroom Tool




This is a fantastic website that allows you to store your files online. It is very cheap and free if you only have the basic 5GB plan (more than enough for most). You can easily download files from anywhere to any device and you cans send links of your files to other people. It links very well with google docs so you can collaborate on documents with others. All in all it is a fantastic free service that I have got all my a-level students to sign up to and no-one has yet missed a deadline (fingers crossed!)

Thursday, 20 September 2012

Pinnacle Studio - Daily Classroom App





"Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Pinnacle® Studio for iPad. Our leading film-editing technology brings you an easy-to-use app that enables you to quickly edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity. " - quote from the website. This is a great free app that allows you to edit video on an ipad or tablet.



Yammer - Daily Classroom Tool





Yammer allows you to create private and secure social networks that can be used in businesses and schools. The free version of yammer would suit the majority of schools and you know it is secure. Would also be good on a small scale for a teacher to set up for a class or form group.